Still Banned In Britain: UK Reaffirms Ban On Michael Savage

Michael Savage has a bone to pick with Media Matters. Since being banned from the United Kingdom in 2009, Savage has grasped at various straws looking to lay the blame on someone other than himself. Among this list of finger-pointees, which includes Hillary Clinton and former President George W. Bush, sits Media Matters. He's even published a book on the subject of who to blame for this injustice.

Tuesday, Savage received a letter from his lawyer sharing with him that the UK would not be lifting its ban on the host, reportedly "unless he repudiated the statements made on his broadcasts that were deemed a threat to public security." Sure enough, on that evening's broadcast of The Savage Nation, Savage did no such thing and continued to blame Media Matters for the ban, stating that we took him out of context and sent edited clips of his program to the British government.

Listen:

It should go without saying that Savage's claims are 100 percent false, as he suggests that we take people out of context (we do not), and that the British do not have Internet access (they do).

Savage, who often refers to himself in the third person, has described himself as being likable to his listeners because he reminds them of a beloved relative -- a grandfather or an uncle, or some other prominent male figure -- and that's why his show has found such success. This may be true, if he was referring to the race-baiting, conspiracy-loving, uncle who blames throat cancer on homosexuality and serves as the constant source of discomfort during family meals.

Savage has a history of anti-gay rantings. In 2003, Savage was fired from MSNBC after telling a caller to "get AIDS and die." In 2007, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) decided to stop representing Savage after he attacked Melissa Etheridge for thanking her wife at the Academy Awards and asserted that married gay couples' raising of children amounts to "child abuse" and "makes me want to puke."

Savage also has a history of violent rhetoric. In 2008, he told a caller that if he were president, he would "hang every lawyer who went down to Guantanamo." Furthermore, in 2010, Byron Williams, an Oakland, CA, man who allegedly conspired to shoot and kill 11 employees of the Tides Foundation, was reportedly a fan of Savage's rantings, adopting conspiracy theories pushed by Savage and others about George Soros, the Brazilian oil company Petrobas and the Gulf oil spill. It was this issue that pushed Byron Williams over the edge. According to a neighbor, Williams was fond of blasting Savage's radio program from speakers pointed into the neighborhood surrounding his home.

Previously, Savage became so enraged about the clips of him on our website that he threatened to broadcast the names and personal information of Media Matters employees.

Here are some more examples of the inflammatory rhetoric coming from Savage's mouth:

Savage can blame Media Matters all he wants for being banned in Britain -- and can continue to say that we "made him look like a murderer and a terrorist" -- but the fact of the matter is that Michael Savage did this to himself.

CNN has announced it hired former Department of Justice spokesperson Sarah Isgur Flores as a political editor to "coordinate political coverage for the 2020 campaign at the network." This hiring decision is surprising given Isgur’s lack of journalism experience, her conflicts of interest stemming from previous roles in the Trump Justice Department and multiple GOP campaigns, and the fact that she personally pledged loyaly to Presdient Donald Trump. But, additionally, Isgur repeatedly made cable news appearances where she pushed false and highly partisan talking points over the years, raising even more questions about the value of involving her in 2020 campaign coverage.